Riptide
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2012
- Messages
- 13,790
The sequel, "Streets of Laredo," is good, too, though it gets pretty weird in places.
BOOKS THREAD
- Thread starter Moderator1
- Start date
rico_the_redneck
Member
I've been reading Truman Capote and Stephen King lately. In Cold Blood is one that will stick with me for a long time. I watched the PSH movie after I read the book and thought it was a good take on the book and Capote's fascination with Perry Smith. Breakfast at Tiffany's was a quick, fun read. I look forward to watching the Hepburn movie. I've had both books on the shelf for probably a decade and finally decided to take a shot. I may pick up Capote's collection of short stories. He's really good. Anyone recommend his first book Other Voices, Other Rooms?
I'm late to the party on Stephen King, too. I read 11/22/63 a few years ago and while I don't usually like sci-fi/time travel, that book is one of my favorites of all time. Since then, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed some of the non-horror stuff like On Writing, Joyland and Mr. Mercedes -- which reads like a mystery/thriller that I tend to stick to mostly.
A few weeks ago, I knocked out The Dead Zone, which I also really enjoyed. Coco recommended it a few pages back -- very good call. Some have said it was sort of King's precursor to 11/22/63 and I can see that - probably why I enjoyed it so much.
So, with The Dead Zone done, I decided to stick with King and finally dive into the horror side of his writing. Working off the Rolling Stone list of their readers choice Top 10, I decided to tackle "It." For some reason, the plot seems more interesting to me than The Stand, which is regarded by most as his best. I'm about 150 pages in to "It" and I'm hooked at this point. In Cold Blood had me pretty spooked as I read it late at night and I know this one will get there - it has in a few places. But a lot of the beginning is introducing the main characters and setting the stage for what I imagine will be some scary stuff to come.
I'm late to the party on Stephen King, too. I read 11/22/63 a few years ago and while I don't usually like sci-fi/time travel, that book is one of my favorites of all time. Since then, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed some of the non-horror stuff like On Writing, Joyland and Mr. Mercedes -- which reads like a mystery/thriller that I tend to stick to mostly.
A few weeks ago, I knocked out The Dead Zone, which I also really enjoyed. Coco recommended it a few pages back -- very good call. Some have said it was sort of King's precursor to 11/22/63 and I can see that - probably why I enjoyed it so much.
So, with The Dead Zone done, I decided to stick with King and finally dive into the horror side of his writing. Working off the Rolling Stone list of their readers choice Top 10, I decided to tackle "It." For some reason, the plot seems more interesting to me than The Stand, which is regarded by most as his best. I'm about 150 pages in to "It" and I'm hooked at this point. In Cold Blood had me pretty spooked as I read it late at night and I know this one will get there - it has in a few places. But a lot of the beginning is introducing the main characters and setting the stage for what I imagine will be some scary stuff to come.
writehooks
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2007
- Messages
- 4
If you're a boxing fan, I strongly recommend "Chuvalo: A Fighter's Life" (Harper Collins, 2013). George Chuvalo, the only man to fight Ali, Frazier and Foreman, was ranked among the world's Top 10 heavyweights from 1961-72 and was never knocked down in 93 fights (7-18-2, 64KOs). But after he retired in 1978, his life fell apart when three sons and his wife died from drug abuse and suicide. Co-written with longtime Canadian boxing journalist Murray Greig, this hard-hitting memoir is both a fascinating inside look at the Golden Age of heavyweight boxing and a poignant chronicle of personal courage.
Flip Wilson
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2004
- Messages
- 2,875
I heard the author of this book on NPR the other day, so I checked out the first book of his I could find at the local library, and it was this one. Pretty entertaining read, though his descriptions of places and objects can be a little over the top sometimes. In real life, the author is a martial arts expert, and the two main characters get in a fight, and the tone of his writing changes as the first-person narrator describes how he fought.
All that being said, Joe Bob says check it out.
All that being said, Joe Bob says check it out.
CD Boogie
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Messages
- 11,135
All the books in that series are great. Gus is right up there with Ignatius J. Reilly for my favorite literary character.
CD Boogie
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Messages
- 11,135
Anyone read "All the Light You Cannot See," the Pulitzer winner? Just finished it. I'm pretty sure part of the reason it won was due to its 1.5-page chapters. Definitely kept the momentum going, which is important in our easily distracted age. Just started City on Fire, which earned the debut author a whopping $2.5m advance. Set in the 1970s in NYC. It's like 900-plus pages and I'm glad I only borrowed it from the library and didn't buy it, bc I don't see myself finishing it. It needs more 1.5-page chapters.
clintrichardson
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2005
- Messages
- 819
if you like short chapters, i'm reading a thriller by Carla Norton called What Doesn't Kill Her which benefits from that technique. i'm about a third of the way in and i'd give it four stars out of five so far, but it's readable as heck.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Messages
- 8,039
I read "All the Light You Cannot See" a while ago, and I liked it but didn't love it. It is compelling, and even made me gulp in a couple of places. But still didn't connect with the main characters as people quite enough to love them, therefore, care more about them. I don't know, something about their (lack of ) depth kept them from jumping off the page at me.
It felt plenty "literary," all right, but just didn't totally connect with me.
OscarMadison
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2013
- Messages
- 4,419
- City & State/Province
- Nashville! Nashville! Nashville! Nashville!
Hi! This is my first post after reading and lurking for a long time.
I just finished Tommy Chong's biography, "The I Chong: Meditations From The Joint." It wasn't literature for the ages, but it was a quick, engaging read. I was afraid it would read like an extended novelization of one of his movies. He writes at length about his spirituality and values. It was refreshing and surprising.
I just finished Tommy Chong's biography, "The I Chong: Meditations From The Joint." It wasn't literature for the ages, but it was a quick, engaging read. I was afraid it would read like an extended novelization of one of his movies. He writes at length about his spirituality and values. It was refreshing and surprising.
CD Boogie
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Messages
- 11,135
Had you heard that Tommy Chong gave Jordan Belfort, aka, the Wolf of Wall Street, the inspiration to write the book? They were in prison together and Belfort was always going on about all these crazy stories about what he'd done, and Chong told him he should write a book. So he did.
Read about 200 pages of City on Fire, but had to bring it back to the library and frankly I wasn't upset to part with it. Fine enough writing, but the story was too reminiscent of Bonfire of the Vanities and the Bronx is Burning. At 900 pages long, I just wasn't moved enough to stick with it. Conversely, I just picked up "Station 11" and read like 75 pages in the first sitting and will probably finish it this weekend. Love me some post-apocalyptic literary.
TheSportsPredictor
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2004
- Messages
- 32,997
OscarMadison
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2013
- Messages
- 4,419
- City & State/Province
- Nashville! Nashville! Nashville! Nashville!
Tommy Chong seems like the kind of person who could talk someone into writing a 900 page novel.
I'll have to look for Station 11. One of my favorite apocalyptic novels is Nick Harkaway;s "The Gone-Away World."
"The Bronx is Burning" is such a great book. It so perfectly captures what it was like to be right there, right then.
I actually pre-ordered it I'm so psyched for it; (1st time ever done that).
They're pre-apocalyptic, not post-, but The Last Policemen trilogy by Ben Winters are pretty good.
Amazon product ASIN 1594746745
As for Station Eleven, I can't recommend it enough. I read it over a year ago and it's really stayed with me.
Amazon product ASIN 1594746745
As for Station Eleven, I can't recommend it enough. I read it over a year ago and it's really stayed with me.
Really enjoy the same genre (The Passage, World War Z, Wool) and thoroughly enjoyed Station 11.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Messages
- 8,039
On a recommendation HC made just about a year ago, I finally read "The French House," by Don Wallace.
This was a book I'd kept in mind that I should read ever since it came up on this thread last April, and I'm glad I did it. It's a good, kind of breezy read with writing that's descriptive and "alive" enough that you get a good picture, and sense, of the people and the place of Belle Ile. I could see how Wallace and his wife could have loved it, and could have bought a French country cottage there.
I loved the pictures of their house and garden. There weren't a lot of them, but I loved seeing them. Totally added to the feel of the book. In short, I enjoyed it a lot. Good suggestion, HC.
This was a book I'd kept in mind that I should read ever since it came up on this thread last April, and I'm glad I did it. It's a good, kind of breezy read with writing that's descriptive and "alive" enough that you get a good picture, and sense, of the people and the place of Belle Ile. I could see how Wallace and his wife could have loved it, and could have bought a French country cottage there.
I loved the pictures of their house and garden. There weren't a lot of them, but I loved seeing them. Totally added to the feel of the book. In short, I enjoyed it a lot. Good suggestion, HC.
I'm glad you enjoyed it too. I spent two summers on Belle-Ile singing in an opera festival there and am completely in love with the place and Wallace captured it to a T. I actually emailed him my compliments and got a lovely reply from him. I think the festival has folded after the death of its founder last October but I have to go back there again somehow.On a recommendation HC made just about a year ago, I finally read "The French House," by Don Wallace.
This was a book I'd kept in mind that I should read ever since it came up on this thread last April, and I'm glad I did it. It's a good, kind of breezy read with writing that's descriptive and "alive" enough that you get a good picture, and sense, of the people and the place of Belle Ile. I could see how Wallace and his wife could have loved it, and could have bought a French country cottage there.
I loved the pictures of their house and garden. There weren't a lot of them, but I loved seeing them. Totally added to the feel of the book. In short, I enjoyed it a lot. Good suggestion, HC.
And if you want more pictures, you'll find some on his blog: DonWallaceFranceBlog
And this photo from my personal collection of the harbour in Le Palais where the ferry arrives from the mainland:
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Messages
- 8,039
Thanks for posting that link to photos, HC. I was going to look it up but hadn't, yet. I was happy to see that the photos of Donnant beach and its surrounding grassy paths and cliffs looked almost exactly as I'd imagined they would, based on what I'd read in "The French House," and that that meant that Wallace must have gotten it right. (Unlike you, I haven't been to Belle Ile so whatever I read in this book amounts to everything I know or have ever heard of about it.
This book was a real change of pace for me -- probably also intended by Wallace, who, himself, always went there for the change from the U.S. and his home of New York City. (I tend to read a lot of social-services related books, a lot of Star Trek and other science fiction, quite a bit of true-life adventure/survival stuff, some sports-related biographies, and marine life and natural and astrological-science things, with a little bit of Christian fiction (and non-fiction stuff) thrown in, too).
So, my tastes are pretty eclectic, and "The French House" certainly added to that.
I even related to the bit of a journalistic vibe that the book had. One particularly memorable part, for me, came as Wallace was relating his almost abject disappointment that the publishing of his first book, "Hot Water," did not actually change his life forever, and make it so that he didn't have to keep working, especially freelancing, like a madman in order to help finance his family's trips to Belle Ile for annual personal restorations, as well as the ongoing, years-long French house renovations:
"Journalism is a messy craft, and its temporal quality rebukes any pretensions of writing for the ages," he wrote. "Instead of immortality, we get to *****, colorfully and extravagantly. That is the joy of a newsroom. But you can't take it with you."
I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little at that, despite his disappointment.
This book was a real change of pace for me -- probably also intended by Wallace, who, himself, always went there for the change from the U.S. and his home of New York City. (I tend to read a lot of social-services related books, a lot of Star Trek and other science fiction, quite a bit of true-life adventure/survival stuff, some sports-related biographies, and marine life and natural and astrological-science things, with a little bit of Christian fiction (and non-fiction stuff) thrown in, too).
So, my tastes are pretty eclectic, and "The French House" certainly added to that.
I even related to the bit of a journalistic vibe that the book had. One particularly memorable part, for me, came as Wallace was relating his almost abject disappointment that the publishing of his first book, "Hot Water," did not actually change his life forever, and make it so that he didn't have to keep working, especially freelancing, like a madman in order to help finance his family's trips to Belle Ile for annual personal restorations, as well as the ongoing, years-long French house renovations:
"Journalism is a messy craft, and its temporal quality rebukes any pretensions of writing for the ages," he wrote. "Instead of immortality, we get to *****, colorfully and extravagantly. That is the joy of a newsroom. But you can't take it with you."
I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little at that, despite his disappointment.
Dick Whitman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
- Messages
- 45,703
